Minority caucus 'exposes' corruption scandal in Agenda 111 project

The minority caucus has accused the government of yet another act of corruption in the implementation of Agenda 111.

According to the Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the government and some of its officials created new entities just to take advantage of the project.

“The Capital Investment Unit of the Ministry of Health has been responsible for the construction of health facilities under every government. But because of the ill intent of this government, they established another agency for the Agenda 111 project, called the Agenda 111 Secretariat.

“The project was taken from the hands of the ministry and brought to the presidency, and was under the supervision of the Chief of Staff. So, the Chief of Staff is in charge of the Agenda 111 project and not the Ministry of Health.

“So, all the procurement laws of the country were ignored in the Agenda 111 project,” he said in Twi in an XYZ TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

He also alleged that some government officials also established a private company right after the project was announced by the president to manage the Agenda 111 project.

Mintah Akandoh said that the said company, Com One Limited, was established in 2016 and was into the trade of general goods, but in May 2020, the objective of the company was amended by the Registrar General’s Department to include the management of projects like Agenda 111, and its name was changed to Hospital Infrastructure Group Limited.

“This company was supposed to manage the Agenda 111 project which was in billions of Ghana cedi but it had only GHC 5000 as its stated capital,” he added.

Background:

The Agenda 111 project includes the construction of 101 district hospitals, six regional hospitals in the newly created regions, two specialised hospitals as well as a regional hospital in the Western Region and the renovation of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital.

It can be recalled that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the beginning of his second term as president, promised that all the projects under Agenda 111 will be completed in 18 months.

However, speaking at the 2022 State of the Nation Address, the president admitted that the initial plan by his government to construct a total of 111 health facilities across the country was overly ambitious.

He explained that the construction of the projects has been faced with unforeseen challenges that slowed the process of getting the projects underway.

President Akufo-Addo however said that the hurdles on most of those sites have been resolved and work has so far begun on 87 of those hospital projects across the country. He also added that all the projects will be completed before he leaves office.

Watch the interview in the video below:



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